Nah. This is no different than, say, CrunchyRoll or Viki.

It is a bit different, because I suspect ultimately, this is targeted at a much bigger market. I'm not sure the exact current population of Africa, but it's huge. And it's getting bigger rather than smaller.

I could certainly be mistaken, but I'd bet my net worth that this is about making a product that will resonate with global black youth. From Canada to eswatini. From Addis to Trinidad and Tobago.

And that market is enormous.

You’re essentially saying that black people need to erase their cultural identity and assimilate into the dominant culture and shut up and watch tv shows about white people like the rest of us and be happy about it. Black people live a different experience than other groups, and maybe they want different shows that resonate with them. BET has been successful for a long time and this service is BET for the internet.

What constitutes as the “black experience”? Are you speaking in terms of the modern day experience of black people? This is a genuine question, and I would really appreciate to hear a response from one who is black. Also, is “black” a culture? No really, aren’t there different cultures that make up the black population, just as there are for whites? Or is there also “white culture”? Or “brown culture”? These seem like dangerous over-generalizations that lack the nuance they deserve.

A Nigerian, or Jamaican may have a completely different understanding of culture than black people whose family history ties back to US slavery.

It is weird how we just tend to generalize over all of this because of the color of one's skin.

"this service is BET for the internet."

Wouldn't BET+ be BET for the internet?

And this service is another competitor to it.

>Black people live a different experience than other groups

Black people are certainly entitled to watch whatever content they choose, but they are not unique in their "different lived experiences". "White people" are not some amorphous, homogeneous group.

You are saying that as if all black people have the same identity or something. Since when does the color of ones skin define their culture?

That's not at all what I'm trying to say. I'm merely pushing back on a lot of people in this thread acting like it's somehow offensive or not ok to try to market a streaming platform aimed the African American audience. There are many different cultures in the African Diaspora, and it seems that this service is targeted primarily at American black people. And I really don't see what is wrong with the idea of launching a streaming service to cater to a specific, underserved demographic.

> It's not "Water Fountains for Black People". It's "Water Fountain - White People Not Welcome"

That's entirely your own interpretation and you might want to consider why you think this way.

There is nothing stopping a white person from subscribing to "Netflix for black people" if they think the content may be of interest to them.

You walk up to a drink vending machine.

You are in America:

Vending machine for Americans sells Gatorade

You are in Mexico

Vending machine for Mexicans sells Agua Fresca

Vending machine for Americans sells Gatorade

This is no different then X for X people.

They aren't saying you aren't welcome, it's more so that you likely don't know if you'll even like Agua Fresca. Mexicans know they love Agua Fresca.

Maybe Mexicans don't really like Gatorade, but they know that the Americans in Mexico would like to have some Gatorade - boom it's a niche, it's a business, profit can be made.

This is NOT discrimination, it's catering to a market. Discrimination is treating unjustly. It has nothing to do with providing X for X. Y could totally have X, no one cares, it's just that Y just may not enjoy it, relate to it or even want it.

Why so hung up on that though? White actors and content are already available over at Universal, Paramount, MGM etc. It's like a white person complaining Howard won't admit them so they're stuck going to Yale. The idealism of 100% equality and 100% integration are appreciated, at least by me (white), but how is a black person supposed to experience the feeling of being in the majority the way white people take for granted? A: By sometimes being a group unto themselves, and not always a subgroup within a much larger mostly-white group.

Can you give an example? I’m assuming you’re not referring to this Netflix competitor as an example of something equivalent to making it illegal for non-whites to eat at certain restaurants.

Subscribing to a service is not mandatory, so not comparable, but there are case of re-segregation in the US such as white-only race training sessions at work or the whole Evergreen hullabaloo.